The Haunted Mansion
by Heaven The Angel
Summary: A new caretaker has decided to take care of an old mansion rumored to have ghosts inside, hoping to get rid of his fears. Little does he know that he was unofficially chosen by one of the pesky ghosts in the mansion to be its 'protector'. But, when something actually does go wrong, the cowardly human has to team up with the ghosts in order for both the living and dead to survive.
1. Prologue

Have you ever seen a Haunted House?

You know the kind I mean: That old dark house that's usually at the end of a dimly lit street. The owners haven't been seen for years. No one really knows why. The windows are broken and boarded, and the shutters hang loose on their hinges. The trees have grown wild, their branches brush against the withering house, making strange noises in the night. There's a high vine-covered fence around the property. Is it there to keep somebody out? Or is it there to keep something inside? It's a house that people avoid walking past at night. Strange sounds come from within the halls. It is said that eerie lights have been seen both in the attic windows, and in the graveyard at the side of the house.

His story will revolve around this mysterious mansion.

Ricky McCaren was not like the other kids…or adults for that matter. The other kids in his class would either play with action figures or play fun children's games, like 'Hide and Go Seek'. In the summer, the children would also usually play pranks on other people, especially in the night.

But Ricky was…different.

Unlike all the other children in town, he actually listened to his teacher and read books, which ultimately lead him into being the laughing stock of the school. In recess, he was always the victim of those pranks that the kids do, which he never liked, mostly because they would ultimately lead to nightmares that same day. Ricky was more about…being safe. Strange thing is it didn't change until he graduated from high school.

Of course, Ricky needed money, so he needed to look into as many jobs as he could. He tried, cashier, janitor, pizza guy, technician, security guard…none of them lasted for at least 2 days. But soon enough…Ricky would eventually come across a job entitled 'caretaker'. Clueless, Ricky chose to accept the job as caretaker of an old, Victorian mansion in his home in New Orleans. Ricky thought this would be easy enough, and plus it would pay him a lot of money so he'll be able to take care of himself. Plus, this might be his chance to learn some bravery skills. 'How is he going to do that at some old mansion?' You ask.

Well, Ricky heard some…rumors.

People have been talking about Gracey Manor for decades now, claiming that it was haunted with ghoulish spirits of deceased people from centuries ago, including the owner of the mansion, Master Gracey. It is even rumored that the ghosts have a large party in the graveyard at night. That is why people always tried to avoid Gracey Manor as much as possible…And Ricky was about to WORK there.

It was alright though; this time, Ricky was ready. All he needed was a lantern and at least 1% of confidence. Sure, he was about to spend every night in a spooky mansion all by himself, but after a while, he's sure he will get used to it…sooner or later. And plus, if he hears some strange noises, he could always go into the mansion for protection.

…Protection?

…If only he had known.


	2. Chapter 1

It was a very rainy night; all of the streets were soaked with rain. Every minute, thunder could be heard and lightning could be seen. Gray clouds filled the night sky while heavy raindrops were pattering on the car windows. The driver looked at the map once again, just to make sure that this was the right place. The map said that the place was just ahead. The man felt assure of himself and kept driving.

He was meant to meet a guy there, just so he can know the procedures, when the job starts and ends, and…what exactly a caretaker…actually does. The man made sure that he was ready for this job, having the necessary lantern and extra matches. He would buy a flashlight, the ones that would actually be useful cost way more than a lantern, apparently. It doesn't matter, the man thought, he was still ready for his job. He was sure he was not going to get fired this time…hopefully.

After a couple of minutes, the man was going to check the map again, until he saw a huge building to his left. It was a large mansion with grayish, white columns in front of the porch. On the sides were green balconies and dark windows. Near was a garden filled with withered flowers and gravestones. He figured that this was the right place.

The man got out of his car and approached the man in front of the mansion. It was a tall figure with grayish blonde hair, and a formal suit, as if he was going to a ball or a wedding. Strangely, he didn't have an umbrella over his head, but he still stood there like there was nothing bothering him. Then again, he didn't bring an umbrella, either, but only because he was sure there was going to be no rain tonight. It was strange to him that this rain appeared, almost as if it was out of nowhere.

The tall man walked about four steps and focused his dark black eyes on the future caretaker.

"Ricky McCaren, I presume?"

Ricky was a little bit scared of the man's strange behavior, but…he's about to babysit a scary mansion; rumored to have ghosts inside…he needs to be a little braver than that if he wants to get this job. So, Ricky shook the creepy introduction off and said "…Ye-…Yes sir, I'm Ricky."

The man grinned and said "Pleasure to meet you, Mr. McCaren. I am pleased that you took the opportunity to take care of Gracey Manor. I was the one that made the job link on the internet; you may call me Edric." After the introduction, Ricky held his arm up, wanting to make a handshake with him, but Edric simply turned away and walked toward the gate, leaving Ricky to slowly put his arm back down.

From Ricky's point of view, Edric looked like he was admiring the abandoned mansion, but, strangely, it didn't look like a happy look, or even his normal gloomy look; it looked like a disgusted look, like the mansion made his body fill up with envy. Did…he not like the mansion? If so, why did he leave the link in the first place?

Ricky was going to ask these questions, but he was interrupted by Edric. "It is getting late, I must go now. Make sure you lock the gate when your shift is over at six o'clock." With that, Edric left the gate and Ricky behind, expecting Ricky to do his job and not slack off, like some of the previous caretakers. Before Edric could leave, however, he said this.

"…Knock them…'dead'…Mr. McCaren."

Ricky was confused by the emphasis on the word 'dead', but he figured it was probably because of the rumors. After the strange goodbye, Ricky grabbed his lantern and matches out of the trunk, but didn't light it up just yet because of the rain. With everything ready, he finally decided to go through the gates and into the mansion garden.

To his left he saw a strange mini cemetery. It seemed like a pet cemetery, complete with tombstones with stone animals decorating them. Ricky chuckled a little bit because some of the epitaphs were actually pretty funny. There was one dedicated to a deceased snake that had this saying:

"Here lies my snake whose fatal mistake was frightening the gardener who carried a rake."

Ricky found it funny that the snake had a both humorous yet tragic death. While he was admiring the rest of the gravestones, he heard a strange sound coming from behind it. It almost sounded…animal-like.

Ricky looked behind him but he saw nothing. But while he was looking for the noises' source, he noticed something. The lantern he had before was gone! Ricky immediately tried to look for it in the bushes and road, but to no avail. "Great!" Ricky thought, "First day on the job and already I screw something up!" Then, he heard the whimpering again, this time it seemed to be louder. Ricky turned around to finally see the source of the noise.

It was a large dog with light brown fur and cute little black eyes. Ricky knew what type of dog it was, it was a dog breed known as a Pointer. They are known to be very kind and intelligent dogs, or at least, that's what Ricky thought, anyway. He looked down and was surprised that in the dog's mouth was actually Ricky's lantern.

Ricky immediately petted the dog while saying "Hey! Thanks buddy!" After he retrieved his lantern, he continued petting the dog with his two hands. "Hey, buddy, are you lost? Do you have anyone to take care of you?" The dog, of course, wasn't able to reply, but he started shivering due to the rain. Ricky noticed his shaking and picked him up. "Well, owner or no owner, it's not safe for you to be out in this storm." Then Ricky looked at the mansion's porch which had the front door on the far right. "I'm sure Edric won't mind me checking out the place."

While Ricky was walking towards the porch, he decided to talk to the dog to keep him company. "So…I assume you don't have a name yet, huh little guy? Now, what should I call you?" Then he looked back at the pet cemetery, and looked back at the dog, which will become his new pet. "Hmm…I think I should call you…maybe… Hmm…Tomb…stone…Tombstone. I like it! I'll call you Tombstone!" The dog barked and his tongue dropped out of the side of his mouth, indicating that he likes the name Tombstone as well. Ricky smiled at his new pet's reaction.

To the right of the front area of the mansion, there was a little spy that Ricky hadn't noticed. The tall figure spied on him go through the front doors, and when he did, the figure went back to his place in the graveyard.

All of a sudden, thunder was heard and a lightning bolt could be seen in the distance. Ricky immediately decided to put Tombstone down and run inside the mansion before they could get a cold. He was going to open the door, but before he could, the doors opened by themselves. Before he could think about what happened, Ricky immediately went inside, along with Tombstone. But when they entered the room, the doors shut behind them, leaving them in the darkness. Ricky tried to open the doors, but they were locked shut. Ricky got a little startled and got…an urge…to find…a way out!


	3. Chapter 2

Tombstone actually wasn't all that scared of the dark, but Ricky thought he was afraid anyway and tried to reassure his new friend. "It's OK, Tombstone. See? I've got a lantern. All I have to do is flick this match…and…" Once Ricky started a tiny light on the match, he put it in the lantern to make a much bigger light. "There, now we're safe." Ricky lifted his light around the room to see what was inside. Strangely, it seemed to still have furniture inside, as if someone still lived there. Above was a large chandelier, complete with dead wax candles. And in front of Ricky, were two large doors, very similar to the locked doors behind him.

Ricky was amazed by the 1800's theme that surrounded the house. It was cool yet creepy at the same time, which Ricky was trying to get used to. And then…out of the blue…the lantern went out…and the chandelier was flickering light into the room…while anonymous music was being heard. Ricky got near Tombstone in fear as they hear a deep and cunning voice.

"When hinges creak in door less chambers, and strange and frightening sounds echo through the halls, whenever candle lights flicker and the air is deathly still, that is the time when ghosts are present, practicing their terror with ghoulish delight."

After that, the doors that were placed in front of Ricky suddenly slid open. Ricky was now shaking in fear. At first, Ricky thought it was a prank, but how could the pranksters get in the mansion already? And how did they get the doors the slide open? Before he could think of anything else, the voice started speaking again.

"Welcome, foolish mortal, to the Haunted Mansion. I am your host…your 'Ghost Host'." Ricky got so scared that he tried to open the front doors again, but they were still locked. The voice spoke again "You can't leave now, the tour has just begun. Kindly step through these doors and follow my voice. You will not be harmed, but you are not leaving until the tour is over. So please, come right in…We've been 'dying' to have you…hehehehehe!"

Not wanting to get hurt, he followed the voices instructions and went through the doors, along with Tombstone. When they both went inside, they saw a hexagon-like room with four portraits hanging high on the walls. One was a man with a black top hat who was looking down with a scared look on his face, the second was a portrait of an elderly woman with a rose in her hands, the third portrait was of a young woman tilting her head and holding an umbrella, and the final picture was of a kindly looking aged man with a black jacket and bowtie and a letter in his left hand. The voice or the 'Ghost Host' began speaking again.

"Our tour begins here in this gallery. Here where you see paintings of some of our guests, as they appeared in their corruptible, mortal state. Kindly remain here and admire this room for a bit…there's no turning back now." Ricky shivered and held on to Tombstone for comfort.

After a while, the room began to…change…as in…the paintings began to get…longer. While this was happening, the Ghost Host began to speak once more. "Your cadaverous pallor betrays an aura of foreboding, almost as though you sense a disquieting metamorphosis. Is this haunted room actually stretching? Or is it just your imagination, hmm?" Once the paintings finally stopped stretching, the full paintings were revealed to Ricky.

The man with the scared look turned out to be on top of two other people drowning in a pool of quicksand, the lady with the rose was on top of a gravestone with a stone head of a man with an axe launched into it, the lady with the umbrella was on a tightrope over a lake with a crocodile with its mouth wide open, and the man with the letter was without pants, only underwear on top of a TNT barrel, with a lit fuse that came out of it. This of course made Ricky shivering with fear; hopefully one of those fates doesn't happen to him.

Once Ricky held Tombstone tighter in his arms, the Ghost Host started narrating again "And consider this dismaying observation: this chamber has no windows and no doors, which offers you this chilling challenge: to find…a way out! HAHAHAHAHAHA…Of course…there's always MY way."

Suddenly, the lights went off and thunder was heard. Ricky looked up at the ceiling to see a skeleton with withered clothes being hanged on the rafters. When it was completely dark, a loud screech could be heard, and then there was the sound of rattling bones on the ground. This made Ricky scream on top of his lungs and run out of the room due to two doors opening on the right side of the room.

The other side of the doors held a long hallway with windows on the left side and some more portraits on the right side, all of which changed into horrifying portraits every time lightning struck. Ricky didn't even pay attention because he was running so fast, not even the two marble busts that turned their heads and gazed at him as he ran down the corner and up a flight of stairs.

Tombstone was trying to follow his cowardly new owner as Ricky was blindly going through various hallways, hoping to find a way out of the mansion. Soon, Ricky's legs began to become tired and he had no choice but to sit down, with Tombstone sitting beside him. To Ricky's right, there was a hallway with floating candelabra that seemed to be really long…or endless, even.

Ricky looked to his right and saw a large, black coffin with dead flowers and plants around it. A pitch black raven with evil red eyes rested on top of the coffin while a skeleton that was inside the coffin was trying to get out. Ricky was absolutely soaked in fear at this point and he started running again. He ended up running down a hallway with disturbing looking pictures on the walls and spooky doors that looked like something was trying to get out and attack Ricky.

Eventually, Ricky got tired again and had to sit down somewhere, but because he was running so fast, now he doesn't know where he is. It would be completely dark, if it wasn't for a faint green light that could be seen in the distance. Ricky could hear someone chanting, but he couldn't make out what it was.

Ricky, desperate to find a way out, went towards the voice and light. When he finally got to hear and see the source of light, he found out that he was in some sort of séance room, complete with spell books and a crystal ball on a large draped table, where the light was coming from. But, before he got closer, he noticed that something was strange about the crystal ball.

The light seemed to form a woman's face with blackish-green hair. Her skin was extremely pale and she turned out to be the one who was saying the chant that Ricky heard earlier, only this time he can figure out what she was chanting.

"Horntoads and lizards, fiddle and strum/ Please answer the role by beating a drum/ Ghost fiends and furies, old friends and new/ Blow in a horn so we'll know whether it's you/Serpents and spiders, tail of a rat/ Call in the spirits, wherever they're at/ Rap on a table, it's time to respond/ Send us a message from somewhere beyond/ Goblins and ghoulies from last Halloween/ Awaken the spirits with your tambourine/ Creepies and crawlies, toads in a pond/ Let there be music from regions beyond/ Wizards and witches, wherever you dwell/ Give us a hint by ringing a bell."

Ricky looked up and noticed that there were floating instruments in the air, responding to the chant. Not taking any chances, he quietly started tiptoeing out of the room to make sure that the disembodied medium didn't notice him. Luckily, she didn't, but the Ghost Host did.

"Ahh, there you are, you sneaky fool. Don't try to find an exit just yet until our little tour is over, we're only halfway through after all. I didn't mean to frighten you prematurely; it's just that the spirits are so excited to see you that they can hardly contain themselves. But, they seemed to have trouble getting through, so I had Madame Leota establish contact. She has a remarkable head for materializing the disembodied."

Before Ghost Host could say anything else, Ricky started to notice something going towards him. They looked like blue glowing sheets that came out of the walls and tried to make contact with him. Ricky, of course being terrified, finally managed to run out of the séance room and onto a balcony way. Ricky looked down and saw all kinds of ghosts in the ballroom. Most of the ghosts were dancing on the dance floor with music being played by a pianist on a pipe organ located at the far left side. They sure seemed to be enjoying themselves…probably shouldn't disturb them.

Before Ricky could look at them any longer, the Ghost Host spoke again "The happy haunts have received your sympathetic vibrations and are beginning to materialize. They're assembling for a swinging wake, and they'll be expecting me. I'll see you a little later." Ricky shook his head and yelled "No! Wait! Don't leave! You're the only…thing I could talk to!" Then he looked on the floor to see Tombstone staring daggers while slightly growling at him. Ricky turned to him and said "Oh…umm…no offense?" Ricky turned and looked back at the dancing ghosts while saying "But that doesn't matter. We gotta get out of here, fast!" Ricky quickly ran down the balcony and went down the only road possible; by going up a tall flight of stairs.

When he finally reached the end, he ended up in an extremely dark room. Ricky relit his lantern and held it up to see that the room was covered with cobwebs. He walked down the corridor to find a way out and kept on continuously seeing extremely old stuff, all of which did not age well. Ricky was struggling to get through the webby junk until he finally came across something that wasn't THAT dirty.

It was a portrait with a short man with a top hat and a pretty big mustache and a rather pretty lady in a wedding dress. Ricky was admiring the painting until…he noticed something. The man's head began to disappear but the rest of his body still remained and the woman suddenly gained a large pearl necklace. After seeing the portraits second form, Ricky started to hear a sinister voice near him, but this time, it wasn't the Ghost Host.

"Here comes the briiide."

Ricky turned around to see a large blue bride with a grinning face standing near him. He then became paralyzed with fear and slowly started walking back, but the bride was walking at the same pace towards him while saying some more creepy chants.

"In sickness and in…wealth…Till 'death' do us part." Ricky eventually tripped over a box and fell down on the floor. The bride then made a large silver hatchet appear in her hands in front of Ricky, completely terrifying him.

"You may now kiss the bride."

Ricky turned away and crossed his arms over his head while shedding some tears as the bride raised her hatchet, planning to give him the same fate as the man in the portrait.

"CONSTACE, STOP IT!"

Instead of setting his fate, Ricky slightly looked up to see a bluish-purple cape in front of him. The bride was stopped by the figure and she made her hatchet vanish in her hands. Before the figure could turn around to see Ricky, he was already at the balcony and rushing down the stairs along with Tombstone.

At the very bottom of the staircase was a valley of spooky trees that lead to the mansion graveyard. As expected, it was filled with ghosts, which Ricky did not like at all. Wanting to get home as soon as possible, he ran down the graveyard, never looking back with Tombstone trying to catch up with his owner. At last, Ricky was almost out of the mansion, surprised to see himself dancing to the song the ghouls were singing. But it didn't matter; all that mattered was getting home.

Once he got home, he is going to quit his job and forget this…'tour' ever happened; he almost got KILLED for crying out loud. So what if no one would think he's cool and brave and all that, he doesn't need to be murdered for it! But just as he was about to leave out the back gate, a voice decided to join him again.

"Ah, there you are…and just in time. There's a little matter I forgot to mention: beware the Hitchhiking Ghosts!"

Ricky went to the backdoor and saw three ghosts thumbing for a ride. One was rounded with a small top hat, a thin cape, and a suitcase in his left hand. The far right one was a very short ghost with long white hair matching his thick beard and a shackle on his left ankle. The ghost in the middle was tall with a skeletal face, a bowler hat, and a large trench coat with fancy shoes, which seemed to be glaring at Ricky.

Ricky, not wanting to deal with anymore ghosts, ran out the backdoor and went straight towards his car. He opened the door and went inside with Tombstone, glaring back at the spooky mansion and driving off…but not without a certain someone watching him. It seems that the middle hitchhiking ghost has taken an interest in the new caretaker.

"This is it!" He thought. "This is the guy who's going to change everything!" He watched the car slowly drifting away as he thought "Oh, come on, Ez! You gotta go and get him back before he quits! It's time to show everyone that they don't have to wait for everything to turn out OK and actually DO something to make things better…starting with you! Just GO!"

And so he did…following him home…like he was SUPPOSED to do.


	4. Chapter 3

When Ricky put his car on his driveway, he immediately ran through the front door along with Tombstone, who was concerned for the sanity of his owner. As soon was Tombstone gone through the door, Ricky slammed it behind him. Little do they both know a little spirit was hiding in the trunk of the car, waiting for them to get inside so he could finally emerge? The ghost floated out of the car as sneakily as he could, not trying to get attention.

Inside the house, Ricky was pacing back and forth in his room upstairs trying to make sense on what happened. "…OK…OK…that…that didn't happen…that couldn't be real…ghosts aren't real…they AREN'T REAL…it was all just in my imagination…PLEASE let it me just in my imagination!" Ricky looked at Tombstone and picked him up. "Tombstone, tell me it's just in my imagination, please, please, PLEASE!" Tombstone just looked at him with a grumpy look on his face, as if he was trying to say "…Really, bro…Really?"

Ricky put him down and took a deep breath, trying to calm down. "…Alright…It's OK…I'll just…quit my job…find another job…and forget this EVER happened." He immediately went to his laptop, meaning to send a message to Edric that he was quitting his job. Then, suddenly, the laptop screen began to glitch out. Ricky stepped back and saw his laptop get the terrible blue screen.

"What?" Ricky thought, "I just got this a couple days ago!" While he was reaching for the laptop again, the power suddenly went out. Ricky's room was now completely dark and the only light there was the blue screen on the laptop, which eventually shut off, leaving Ricky and Tombstone in the darkness. After a while Ricky heard something behind him; he looked and saw nothing. Then, he turned around to see a strange blue aura appearing in front of him. It merged and went taller while Ricky immediately went for his lantern and matches. The aura eventually formed arms and legs and then it formed bones as its skin. Eventually it became the tall 'hitchhiking ghost' that he saw before imitating Ricky.

Ricky held up his lit lantern while screaming at the top of his lungs, only to have the ghost, who was really close to the light, scream as well. The screams made Ricky stop screaming and slowly gaze at the ghost, who was panicking and floating all around the room. Eventually, the ghost was in the darkest corner of the room, finally noticing that Ricky was looking at him.

"Umm…boo?"

Noticing that the ghost was scared and…being weird…Ricky tried to step closer, but the ghost only went farther away. "No! No! NO!" Ricky (actually showing concern for the ghost) gazed at him and asked "…Hey…Mr. Ghost…are you OK?" The ghost looked at Ricky and said "If you keep that light away from me, I will be." The confused human didn't know if he should or not, I mean…he's a ghost. He was just about to attack him a second ago, why would he help him? But…since he's already here…he's not going to leave until he does what he wants to do. Ricky, curious on what the ghost was doing in his house, asked him "Well…I'm not going to put the light away…until you tell me what you're doing here."

"Oh, come on!" The ghost got up from the corner, but Ricky lifted his lantern to make him stay. "Tell me…and you can haunt that creepy mansion of yours all you want." The ghost stepped back to the corner, staying away from the light. He sighed angrily and answered.

"…I'm not going to hurt you, I jut scared you to make sure that you were still afraid of me. You were but…well, you know the rest. I can't explain right now, but all I can say is that you need to come back to the mansion." Ricky replied "Why would I do that?! One of your ghosts almost killed me!" The ghost opened his mouth to say something, but then he stepped back and pondered for a moment.

"…Did the ghost have a wedding dress on…with an axe?" Ricky nodded and replied "Well…yea." The ghost rolled his eyes and said to himself "Well…I'm sure Hattie will take care of it." Ricky asked "Who's Hattie?" The ghost replied "Another ghost, and if you come with me, you'll get to meet him." The ghost checked the clock again to see it just turn into 12:55. "Look, I don't have time for this, just come back, we won't hurt you this time, I…almost promise." Ricky said "I don't trust an almost promise, and I'm NOT going back to that mansion! I'm quitting my job tomorrow and there's nothing you can do to stop me! I've made my decision…Now LEAVE!"

The ghost frowned, crossed his arms and said "OK…fine! I guess…no one will ever see my point." The ghost then turned to the wall and left, leaving Ricky and Tombstone in the room by themselves…giving time for Ricky to ponder for a moment.

"Hmm…that ghost thing seemed really upset when I refused to return to the mansion…Why? It looked like it must've been really important to him with the way he left…maybe I should've been to mean to him…" Then another voice in Ricky head appeared on the other shoulder. "NO! What are you thinking?! Don't feel sorry for him! He tried to kill you! Ricky, stay at home…where it's safe…where no one can hurt you at all…no one to bother you…at all…EVER!" Ricky…made his decision.

As the ghost got out of the house and was floating home, he stopped and looked back…not believing that his one chance to change things for the better is slipping away. He then sighed and continued his journey home…only to hear a car rushing behind him. The ghost turned around and saw that it was Ricky's car, he then smiled and said "Heh…I knew he couldn't resist." The ghost followed the car all the way back to the mansion, just like the ghost wanted.


	5. Chapter 4

As Ricky's car was being parked in front of the mansion the second time that night, the ghost was staring at him through the car window with an excited grin on his face. Ricky saw him and got startled by the ghost's gaze. "GAH! Why do you ghosts keep on doing that?!" Ricky got out of the car with Tombstone behind him, and the ghost (not wanting to confuse the mortal) finally decided to explain everything.

"So…you're probably wondering why I asked you to come back here…and I'm wondering the same thing, why DID you come back?" Ricky awkwardly answered with his arms crossed "Well…honestly…I had nothing to do this weekend and…you seemed human enough so…might as well finish my shift…But if I get killed, my spirit will be blaming you!" The ghost said "Fine…not the only time that a spirit's blamed me for something…anyway, I should probably introduce myself, shouldn't I? Well, my name's-"

"EZRAAA!"

The ghost put a worried look on his face and turned to Ricky "Oh no! You gotta hide…whatever your name is!" Before Ricky could say anything, the ghost made Ricky hide in a large bush near the mansion. He managed to still be able to look at the skeletal ghost and see another ghost float towards him. It was one of the ghosts from the exit of the mansion, the chubby one with the traveler bag, looking straight at the skeletal ghost. "Ezra! Where have you been?! You know I don't like it when you run off without me and Gus!" The skeletal ghost answered "Calm down, Phin. I was just going out for a midnight spook. No worries." The rounded ghost put his hands on his hips and said "Well, just tell me next time, OK-"

The rounded ghost seemed to be looking at something behind the skeletal ghost, so he turned around to see that he was just noticing the caretaker's car. "Umm…what is THAT doing here?" The skeletal ghost tried to act like he never seen the car before. "What…That electric doo-hickey?" The rounded ghost crossed his arms and gazed at him, who had an awkward smile on his face. "I could've sworn that that 'electric doo-hickey' belonged to that mortal we scared off earlier." The rounded ghost walked closer to the skeleton with a grumpy scowl on his face, with the other making his smile even bigger and walking backwards.

"Uhh…h-hey Phin! You don't think I tried to do…THAT again…don't ya?" The rounded ghost replied "As one of the very small amount of people that is actually your FRIEND…I have a feeling you did." While this was going on, Ricky was still in the bush, listening to every single word they said. "Why am I even hiding here?" Ricky thought, "And what did he mean by 'that'?" As he was pondering, his peace was suddenly broken by a glowing blue face appearing in front of him.

"BOO!"

Ricky shrieked and retreated from the bush, with Tombstone looking down and shaking his head while following his owner. Ricky was slowly crawling towards his car until large blue feet confronted him. He looked up to see the rounded ghost staring down at him with his arms crossed. Ricky began crawling backwards but accidentally went through the ghost that scared him earlier (who turned out to be the prisoner hitchhiker). The prisoner looked between his legs to see Ricky's scared face. "Hiya!" The prisoner said before floating right-side up. Ricky suddenly stood up and walked backwards as the prisoner came closer. "S-stay back, spirits! I have a flashlight…that I left in the car…but I still have it!"

Surprisingly, instead of making fun of him for his cowardly-ness, the prisoner folded his hands and said "Daww…so cute how you tremble in fear! Phineas, can we keep him?" The rounded ghost approached him replied "No Gus! You know the rules!" The prisoner whined "But it's a human that went back!" The ghost replied "No!" The skeleton ghost interrupted and said "Phin, Gus, no need to fight. Tell ya what. Maybe we can just…you know…keep the human until he breaks that stupid prophecy?" The rounded ghost stared at him with anger, the prisoner ghost started at him with a smile, and Ricky stared at him with confusion. "Hey! I have another idea! Maybe we can just…you know…explain to me WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON?!"

The skeletal ghost turned to Ricky and replied "Oh sure thing. The thing is-" The rounded ghost interrupted him "Ezra! This has gone far enough! You need to get him back home before the ghost host finds out!" The skeletal ghost said "But Phin-" "NOW!"

The skeletal ghost opened his mouth to say something but put on a sad look and gave up. The skeletal ghost then approached Ricky and said "Phin is right…you should go before the ghost host catches us." Ricky saw the sad look on the ghost's face and felt…guilty somehow. This didn't really make since to him, since the other ghosts tried to kill him almost an hour ago. But…he surprisingly didn't care. So, instead of running towards his car and driving home, he instead stood his ground. "But…I don't wanna leave."

The skeletal ghost looked up at him with a surprised look. "You…you don't?" Ricky strongly replied "N-No!" The rounded ghost approached the mortal and asked "Why not? We almost scared you to death, didn't we?" Ricky replied "Yea, you did…I maybe even soiled my pants-but…I just can't leave when you've given me so many clues." The three ghosts looked at the mortal in shock, wondering what made him actually work the rest of his shift at his OWN WILL. The rounded ghost put his hand behind his head and said "Well…that's a…new one…to let a mortal roam the mansion on his own will." The skeletal ghost followed "Yea, Phin is right, it's-" Then he understood what his friend had actually said and turned to him. "Phineas…are you…actually saying…" Phineas slumped his arms and replied "…sigh…I hate to admit it…but…if he is brave enough to go back to the mansion willingly then…maybe…just maybe…he might have a very slight chance?"

The skeletal ghost slowly put a gigantic smile on his face, along with the prisoner ghost. Before the prisoner ghost could even flinch, the skeleton floated up in the air and floated around for a couple of happy seconds. Once he got down on the ground, Ricky budded in. "Hey…so…I'm guessing your name is Ezra?" The skeleton, named Ezra turned around. "Oh, yea! My name's Ezra. And this is Phineas and Gus." He said as he pointed to his friends. Gus, the prisoner, waved while making delayed jumps due to his ball and chain, and Phineas, the traveler, just did a very small shake of his hand. Ricky waved back while saying "Uhh…hi. I'm Ricky, and this is-" Ricky tried to introduce them to his dog but couldn't find him. He then spotted him near Gus, who was attempting to pet the small animal. Ricky said to him "…That's Tombstone." Gus stated "He's adorable! Can I keep him?" Ricky replied while chuckling a little bit "Umm…no." Phineas said "Oh, sorry. He's just a big fan of 'keeping' things." Ezra muttered to himself "Tell that to your bag."

Ricky ignored the comment and asked "So…how about explaining me a few things." Ezra turned to him and said "Oh…I guess we have to…But first, we gotta get back to our posts, or the ghost host is going to flip! Come, I have a hiding spot for ya!" "But-" It was too late; the ghosts have already sprinted to their post, and Ricky and Tombstone were forced to follow them back into the graveyard.


	6. Chapter 5

**Hey guys!**

 **It's me, Heaven! Heaven the Angel!**

 **You know, the girl that is the worst at updating stories? Yea!**

 **I'm very sorry that I didn't update this, especially since I'm probably talking to new people. But…here I am now! Yay!**

 **I just wanted to make sure, that you know that I'm the absolute WORST at keeping up with my stories.**

 **…** **Well, maybe not the WORST, but…I'm the worst one I know as of right now!**

 **So, I may not be able to keep up with this as much as I want to. I just wanted you to know that and that I'm trying the best I can to fix that.**

 **Anyways, thanks for understanding and talk to you later.**

Ricky and Tombstone were trying their best to stay on the Hitchhiking ghosts' tail, but, when they went back to the graveyard, they were all nowhere to be found. Ricky told Tombstone to find their scent (if that was actually possible) but the canine still couldn't find them. Ricky started panicking, seeing how he was now all alone in a haunted graveyard filled with ghosts that can and will kill him if they had the chance. Then, a rather familiar and stern voice whispered to him. "Don't just stand there and get caught! Follow me!"

Ricky turned to see Phineas hiding in a large bush, much to his relief. Phineas' eyes were glaring at his, confirming that he's still keeping a sharp eye on the mortal. "Stop looking at me like an idiot and follow me!" Ricky, non-hesitantly, obeyed the rounded ghost and followed him into the wilted bush… being slightly offended by the word "idiot".

Despite any crazy thing that has happened tonight and all of the unanswered questions, Ricky knew for sure that he wasn't an idiot! In fact, he was on the top of his history class last year. Phineas asked "Oh yea? If you weren't an idiot then why did you come back here?" Ricky was about to answer but suddenly realized; he didn't even say anything! Phineas just answered him like all the things that he was thinking just uttered out of Ricky's mouth. How'd he do that? It was almost like…it was like…

"…It was like I was reading your mind, right? Yea, I get that a lot."

Ricky widened his eyes as he crawled behind the ghost, getting scratches, dirt, and leaves all over his body from the rose bushes. "H-how'd you-" Ricky tried to say. Phineas replied "It's best to keep what you want to say in your mind for now. I don't want to get attention from the other ghosts." Phineas stopped crawling, turned his body, and sat down. That's when Ricky noticed something else. Phineas' usually black pupils were a bright blue with the white part of the eye turned into a dark void of black. "But, to answer your question, all of us ghosts have our own special quirk when it comes to supernatural abilities. And to answer your second question…" As quickly as the cold wind flowing in the air, Phineas' eyes turned back to their normal state. "…No, it is not permanent."

Ricky was about to say something else, then thought about Phineas reading his mind again, and then tried to say it again, then thought about it again…he got, quite understandably, confused. "H-How do you guys even work?!" Ricky whispered the loudest way possible. Phineas turned his body back around. "All of the answers will come in due time-" His statement was interrupted by the sound of howling laughter from the outside of the bushes. Phineas closed his eyes and made an angry sigh. "But for now I have to fix this…again."

Phineas got up, completely ignoring the bush that he just went through, and walked away, leaving Ricky behind. Curious, the caretaker, along with Tombstone (who managed to walk under the bush without any problem), peeked their eyes out of the bush to see what was going on.

Surprisingly…he felt bad that he did.

He saw that everyone that was singing, dancing, drinking wine, and minding their own business just a moment ago were laughing at Ezra, Gus, and now, Phineas. After a while of laughter, one of the ghosts, a king-looking man who was on a seesaw with a queen-looking woman, spoke up. "Why, if it isn't the Hitchhiking Ghosts; Gus, the elf, Phineas, the hoarder, and, Ezra, the under achiever." After the king's insult, the queen decided speak up after him. "Darling, Ezra doesn't need to be called that name! That was WAY too overrated! I suggest we call him "The Ghost Who Can't Keep Imagination Away From Reality". Yes, that will suffice!" As the queen laughed the other started to laugh again, this time it was louder than ever; so loud that Ricky was surprised that the people nearby didn't wake up due to the ruckus.

After a couple of seconds, Ezra, clenching his bony fists, decided he had enough. "Well, at least I don't sit around and do nothing but drink wine and sing all day!" Everyone became silent, but not to be offended by the insult. In fact, their faces were still smirking. Ricky concluded that they just wanted to see Ezra make a fool out of himself.

"Ezra, please don't do this! You're going to embarrass yourself!" Phineas said to his friend. Ezra turned to Phineas and said "I'm embarrassing myself?!" Ezra turned his face towards the still smirking and now chuckling crowd. "They're all the ones who should be embarrassed!"

"We, embarrassed? You are the one who keeps on believing that we can change the Prophecy however you want! It simply is not possible!" A ghost with a top hat and teacup in his hand said.

There was that word again. "Prophecy"

Ricky, of course, heard of the word prophecy before; the concept of something happening in the future as foretold by someone or something. Everyone thought it was something out of a fairytale, including him. But never, in a million years would he ever think that it would actually happen, and he was playing a part of it, no less.

Ezra, getting angrier by the insult, opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by a man with a large hatchet in his hand and over his shoulder and a mask that was covering a portion of his head just above the nose and mouth, making his eyes a dark void of nothingness.

"Ezra, I'm going to be honest with you. For a portion of our afterlife, we actually started to believe you. We thought that maybe your constant rambles were actually useful advice. But then…well, you know what happened." Ezra began shaking in fury, but Ricky could tell by his eyes that he was full of uncertainty.

"Yea, but I…b-but I-"

"Almost an entire year ago, one of the Spirit World's two prophecies came true. Madame Leota said that they will only come true if we all follow the Spirit World's exact commands. And, guess what? It did. Now, to make sure the other prophecy isn't screwed up, we have to follow those commands as well. We are supposed to wait, Ezra."

"It's not waiting, it's just doing NOTHING!" Ezra finally managed to spit out. "We can all make the darkness go away sooner by actually doing something for once! We can stop the darkness and everyone in the mansion would come back, including…her…But she can't come back if we don't make a plan, get some help or just try to do something, ANYTHING!"

The dark eyed ghost straightened his back and put a gigantic scowl on his evil looking face.

"…How can we do something, when you don't even know what to do?"

With that phrase, Ezra just stopped and froze in place.

"Now, why don't you go back and do your job…well, whatever is left of it, anyway."

Everyone that was laughing and howling at Ezra just a few moments ago, were quiet and tranquil as they disappeared. Gus became angry and tried to follow the crowd, hoping to attack them. Phineas walked over to the tiny prisoner and picked up the neck of his gown, lifting Gus off the ground. "Lemme at 'em! Lemme at 'em!" Phineas said to his tiny companion "Gus, it's not worth it." Then, the traveler turned to Ezra, whose body and character seem to have been replaced with a gray cloud of disappointment.

"It's not worth it."

Ezra turned away from the two ghosts and started floating to the actual mansion; to the window where Ricky escaped that psycho bride. Phineas used his arm to reach out to his friend, but as Ezra made his way to the balcony, he sighed and put his hand down.

"…I'm sorry, Ri-…mortal. I'm sorry we'd put you through all this, you can go ho-" Phineas looked in the bush to see that both the human and the pointer were gone.

"Mortal?!" Phineas desperately tried to search for Ricky around the graveyard, but could not find him. "Hey, Phin! Over there!" Gus shouted as he pointed to the mansion. The traveler looked at where Gus's finger was pointing and widened his eyes to see that both Ricky and Tombstone were walking up the mossy stone stairs to the attic.

Phineas just kept his shocked look on his face as Gus smiled as his eyes dark eyes gleamed.

"I think Hattie's gonna like him!"


	7. Chapter 6

Ricky's feet were taking turns landing on the stone stairs as Tombstone raced near them. Not wanting to be seen by the other ghosts, he quickly found a hiding spot that was near the opening between the balcony and the attic. So he went inside and hid behind some boxes he found near the exit to the balcony with Tombstone sitting on his lap. _"_ _Hey, this might not be such a bad hiding spot."_ Ricky thought, _"_ _Sure it may be incredibly close to that axe wielding maniac, but at least it would hide me for a little while."_

Then, Tombstone's eyes widened at something he saw and started rapidly tapping his paw on Ricky's leg. Ricky whispered "What is it?" The canine stopped moving his paw and Ricky turned to what he was staring at. Immediately after, he tensed up.

Ezra was standing incredibly close to the mortal, his boney fists clenched just below his hips. He closed his eyes and clenched his teeth in frustration while shaking a little. Ezra then opened his eyes, filled with anger, and, realizing where he was, took a deep breath in through his nose and released the air through his mouth. After he did so, he stopped shaking, eased his fists and used them to straighten his bowtie while turning away from the mortal he didn't seem to notice. Ezra was trying to stay as calm and collected as possible for the ghost he was about to visit…and said ghost was not the one who appeared in front of him with an axe in her hand.

Ezra jumped a little as his eyes widened, surprised to see the black widow appear so quickly. As quickly as he jumped, he reassured himself and waved. "Hey, Connie." Constance put her free hand on her hip as she put on a cunning smile. "Bad day in the graveyard, huh, boney?" Ezra put his back a little more straight and replied while pointing his finger "Hey! It was not bad…at least not AS bad as some of the other days."

 _"_ _Not_ _AS_ _bad?!"_ Ricky thought to himself. _"He had days even worse than THAT?!"_ Ricky started to feel a little bad for him…even though he's a supernatural being that wasn't supposed to exist, he wasn't THAT bad.

Constance started twirling her axe with her hand. "But it was still bad wasn't it?" Ezra opened his mouth to protest, but after two seconds he slumped down and looked down in defeat. "Yea…it was really bad." Ezra looked up at Constance, who still had that look on her face, but, to Ricky, something about it seemed to be more sympathetic than normal. Ezra sighed quietly and asked "Do you know where I can find Hattie?"

 _"_ _Hattie!"_ Ricky recalled in his mind. He remembered when Ezra meet Ricky for the first time and mentioned that name and he called him a "friend of his", but he never went into much detail into who he was. Ricky was listening extremely carefully at that point. Maybe, just maybe, this "Hattie" character will help Ricky find out what in the actual heck is going on here!

Constance stopped twirling her axe and her smile disappeared from her face as she rolled her eyes. "You mean the hat-wearing softie? Actually, yea, I think I've seen him walk off to the ballroom after he ruined my scare. Follow me." Constance turned around and floated off while leaving behind a large, cyan trail. Ezra sighed and followed her, leaving the same trail she did.

Ricky put his head up and looked around one last time to see if the coast is clear. One he realized it was, he got up and searched around the attic. "OK, if this "Hattie" guy lives…or rather 'dies' here, then he has to have some stuff lying around somewhere." Ricky whispered to Tombstone "Why don't you go check the right side and I'll go check the left side, K, Tombstone?" Tombstone nodded his head in agreement and started digging through the junk on the right side of the attic.

Tombstone eventually found something…rather interesting. He managed to find a stack of four strange boxes in different sizes and colors. Tombstone tilted his head at the strange sight, but shrugged and continued searching anyway.

Meanwhile, Ricky was looking through various painting and other junk that seemed to be rather pointless to the mortal. After a couple of seconds of carefully looking through stuff, he found something. It was a weird looking box with a handle on the top cap, and it seemed to be…glowing? Ricky did not like the look of the thing, but, honestly, he went through so many other crazy things tonight, what's a glowing box going to do? So, the mortal picked up the box with both hands and whispered to Tombstone. "Hey, Tombstone, I think I found something. It's glowing so, I'm pretty sure it has something to do with 'Hattie'."

"Oh, are you looking for me?"

Ricky froze at the unfamiliar voice that suddenly called out, and then he saw the light from the box glowing even brighter from the corner of his eye. Ricky slowly turned around with his eyes widened, and saw that the box suddenly had a head inside! The head had long white hair that reached his chin and his eyes were a bright yellow with large black dots as his pupils. Ricky opened his mouth, but no noise came out, only some very small breaths. The head seemed to become worried. "Oh, please don't be scared. I didn't mean to frighten you!"

Before he knew it, Ricky saw another bright blue glow, this time it was right next to him. He slowly moved his head again and saw that there was a body, complete with long blue, purple cape and a matching buttoned coat that reached over his knees, which were also covered with long pants that reached his feet, which were clothed with cloth-like flats. He also had a nice top hat…with no head of course.

Ricky once again cried breathless screams as the head from the box disappeared from the box and suddenly appeared onto the body's shoulders. Once the ghost did so, he used his hand to fix his lop-sided top hat while his other hand was holding a cane that was seemingly to keep him standing up. The ghost put his eyes on his mortal visitor. "May I please have my hatbox back?"

Ricky stared at him, still shocked about how weirder things keep on happening to him, but turned his body around to give the ghost his hatbox. "Thank you." The ghost said as he gently grabbed the hatbox from the human's hands. "Now, as I was saying, I believe you were looking for me?" Ricky slowly pointed his finger at the ghost. "Y-you're Hattie?" The ghost grinned and nodded his head. "Why yes!"

The ghost lifted his top hat and slightly shook it. "People call me The Hatbox Ghost, but you can call me Hattie if you wish. I would explain why people call me this…but I already showed you." Ricky kept silent but his face became calmer as he realized how incredibly and strangely polite The Hatbox Ghost was.

He never expected this from a ghost who Ezra considered as a friend, considering the two friends he already had. Phineas was a stubborn, mind-reading worrywart who thought that Ricky was a good-for-nothing escort, and Gus was…weird. But this ghost seemed different, as in very polite and positive. But something about him seemed…familiar.

Hattie put his hat back on his head and said "I'm terribly sorry about my roommate's behavior. I mean, I don't mind her scaring the mortals, but sometimes…she seems to take it a little bit too far." Ricky thought for a moment…and then remembered!

 _"_ _CONSTACE, STOP IT!"_

 _Instead of setting his fate, Ricky slightly looked up to see a bluish-purple cape in front of him. The bride was stopped by the figure and she made her hatchet vanish in her hands. Before the figure could turn around to see Ricky, he was already at the balcony and rushing down the stairs along with Tombstone._

"…You scared her off." Ricky finally whispered out loud. Hattie nodded his head in agreement as he grinned. The ghosts yellow eyes looked over Ricky's head and frowned. From that moment, Ricky could sense the drapes of the ghosts dress and the tip of the axe nearing his back.

"…On no."

 **Hey guys, its Heaven again.**

 **I just wanted to make something clear for you guys.**

 **So, in this chapter, I got into my version of the Hatbox Ghost, a ghost that disappeared after a couple of days when the ride first came out.**

 **…** **Keep note the words MY version.**

 **I am aware that most people make the Hatbox Ghost a grumpy person and/or a tomboy character. The grumpy person is…understandable, he was kicked out of the mansion for over 45 years. And I always really liked the tomboy characters. But I just imagine the Hatbox Ghost as…a sweet guy.**

 **He's not perfect by any means, as I will explain in a later chapter, but I just imagine him as a cute little guy!**

 **I'm going to be honest, making this character was probably the hardest thing I had to think of, there were times where he was going to be a tomboy, there was times where he was going to be a Christian guy (which is still not a bad idea in my opinion). Overall, I just couldn't find a perfect personality for him.**

 **Then I found something online, it was a Tumblr account known as "Ask The Hatbox Ghost". In their HC, The Hatbox Ghost (who most often called Thomas as it's his real name) is a nice guy who adopted a human girl and he's just…an adorable little cinnamon roll. So, based on that, I decided to make my HC of the character an adorable little cinnamon roll.**

 **I promise I will try to make him an inspired character and NOT a rip-off character as best as I can by making him different in very different ways. If you have the time, I totally recommend looking that up, they do very good RP's with other role-players who are role-playing as other Haunted** **Mansion** **characters.**

 **Anyway, now that I have gotten that out of the way, I hope you enjoyed and I'll see you in the next chapter.**


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